Michael Gove believes the six-week school summer holiday is based on Britain’s former agrarian economy (Picture: Reuters)

Plans to end the traditional six-week school summer holiday for schools have been slammed by unions.

As revealed in the new deregulation bill, state schools are to be given permission to set their own term dates, with powers being taken away from local councils by September 2015.

The plans come weeks after education secretary Michael Gove said children should have shorter holidays, despite criticism from unions that teachers and pupils already spend long hours in the classroom.

Bright Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said uncoordinated calendars between different schools could cause havoc.

‘The problem will come if no one is responsible for creating a coordinated calendar for an area and it turns into a free-for-all. Somebody needs to take the lead locally on deciding term dates and it makes sense for this to be the local authority, even if schools aren’t required by law to follow it,’ he said.

‘It would help for deregulation to be accompanied by guidance which reminds schools to take into account local circumstances and to consider the practical difficulties parents can face when schools within an area have varying term dates.’

Teachers take part in industrial action against Michael Gove’s pay, pensions and working conditions plans in Liverpool last month (Picture: PA)

Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the deregulation bill threatened ‘chaos’ for families.

‘Parents [and] carers could find themselves in the position of their children having different holiday times from each other and will find it difficult to meet with relatives or friends in other parts of the country,’ she said.

‘Holiday companies will almost certainly just expand the period over which they charge premium rates so there will be no benefit to families, or indeed the general public who will have fewer weeks of less expensive holidays.’

In a speech in April, Mr Gove called for longer school days and term times, warning that the current system was based on the agricultural economy of the 19th century.

‘If we look at the length of the school day in England, the length of the summer holiday and we compare it to the extra tuition and support children are receiving elsewhere then we are fighting, or running, in this global race in a way which ensures we already start with a significant handicap,’ he said.